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Carhelp4u, ASE CERTIFIED TECH

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I PURCHASED A BATTERY FOR MY CAR. THEY PUT THE WRONG SIZE

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I PURCHASED A BATTERY FOR MY CAR. THEY PUT THE WRONG SIZE IN MY CTS. AS A RESULT IT BENT THE HOOD, IT WAS REPAIRED AND THEY REPLACED THE BATTERY. 12-14 MONTHS AGO. THIS WEEKEND THE CAR WAS HESITANT IN STARTING. I TOOK IT BACK TO THE STORE I PURCHASED THE BATTERY. THEY TESTED IT AND TOLD ME I NEEDED A BATTERY. I TOLD THE SALES PERSON THAT I ONLY HAD THE BATTERY FOR A LITTLE OVER A YEAR. I THEN CALLED MY HUSBAND TO CONFIRM THE AGE OF THE BATTERY. THE SALESMAN THEN, TOLD ME THAT ONE OF THE CABLES WERE LOSE AND CORROSION WAS ON IT. HE CLEANED IT AND LEFT IT CHARING FOR ABOUT 3-4 MINUTES. HE HAD ME TO TURN THE CAR OFF AND RESTART IT. THE CAR STARTED JUST FINE. AS I DROVE HOME I NOTICED THAT THE CLOCK WAS NOT WORKING, THE GAS GAUGE WAS ON EMPTY AND THE SERVICE THEFT SYSEM LIGHT WAS ON. THINKING THAT I HAD TO RESET A CODE, THAT WAS NOT THE CASE. I CALLED THE DEALER TOOK CAR IN. THE BATTERY IS NOT THE RIGHT SIZE, THE COMPUTER SYSTEM SHORTED OUT. WHAT COULD OF HAPPENED?

This to me sounds like you are having a instrument panel issue, or possibly an engine control module issue. The complexity of the wiring in this car makes a problem like this rather hard to diagnose without seeing the actual results of what a scan tool reads for body failure codes and so on. I have seen many cases in which simply removing battery voltage and then reapplying it just through a simple battery change has caused serious damage for no real reason. I cannot honestly see this being caused by a battery being incorrect, unless the battery terminals actually were touching metallic items such as the body itself, of any of the engine components. My feeling is that in your case, removing the battery voltage from the system and then reapplying the battery voltage with the new batter has caused damage that was no in anyones control. I use a tool that plugs into the lighter socket and simply plugs into a 9 volt battery to make sure that problems like this do not happen. This allows for memory and many other electical items to be energized while the battery is out of the car. If the battery was installed and touching mettalic items like I had mentioned then this would be different and would be a bug problem. If the battery was actually shorting out on other items then you would have a result like this. Feel free to contact me with any questions or if you would prefer a second opinion! Good luck to you!

THE BATTERY WAS REPLACED A FEW DAYS AFTER INITAL PURCHASE. THIS INCIDENT HAPPENED THIS PAST WEEKEND. THE DEALER IS SAYING THAT IS THE MODULE. MY POINT IS IT IS THE WRONG BATTERY FOR THE CAR AND ALSO THE SECOND ONE THEY PUT IN. HOWEVER, THE CAR WAS FINE UNTIL THEY CLEANED THE CABLES AND CHARGED IT. I ALSO HAVE THE CAR SERVICED AT THE DEALER. I HAD NO WAY OF KNOWING THAT THE WRONG BATTERY WAS IN THE CAR. SHOULDN'T ONE OF THEM BE RESPONSIBLE. THE PARTS SO FAR IS AROUND 450-500 DOLLARS

THE INCORRECT BATTERY WAS INSTALLED TWICE. FIRST TIME TOO LARGE BENT THE HOOD. SECOND ONE IS THE ONE THAT HAS CAUSED THIS PROBLEM. THE CAR IS AT THE DEALER AND THEY ARE THE ONES WHO TOLD ME THAT THE BATTERY IS NOT FITTING RIGHT AND IT IS THE WRONG ONE.

Ok, first of all, we really do not know what all is incorrect with this battery. If the terminals were are have been hooked up backwards at any point, then yes this should be the dealers problem. What I mean by installing the terminals backwards would be putting the negative cable to the positive post of the battery, and the positive cable to the negative post of the battery. The real headache for you is proving any of this. I see what you are getting at and this is difficult to be certain of not knowing the exact figment and problems that this battery is causing. If the battery does not fit correctly and it was rotated or anything of that nature and someone hooked the terminals up backwards this could happen. This is not the only reason though. As I stated, you can get some pretty strange problems just from taking voltage away and then reapplying it which I am certain was done to change the battery.

THANKS...the battery was not changed on saturday, they tested it told me I needed one. I told them i only had it 12-14 months. they supposely cleaned the corrossion and tighten a loose cable. Could that have caused the gas gauge, clock to stopped working. the car was operating fine with the exception of a little hesitation in starting up at times.

Customer:replied 6 years ago.

which is the reason I had it checked. I don't think I have confused you. I have driven the car with the second battery for 12-14 months. Saturday I took it back to be check because it was slow to start. This is what happened. then took car to dealer. Dealer told me it was the wrong battery for starts and I need a computer module and possibly something else.

I would not see that simply cleaning the terminals would cause for this problem. Corrosion is a bad thing for sure. This can cause for a good battery to test bad, so if corrosion was evident, the dealer would have to clean the terminals up and charge the battery. IF this was all done correctly, there would be no cause for this to damage electronics. Keep in mind what I mentioned about removing the battery voltage. This is a key as this can happen as soon as you try to reattach the battery cables. The only way I could see the dealer to be a cause of this would be if they in fact hooked up the cables incorrectly. Thats the only way that they would be responsible for this problem. I hope this gets closer to what you are looking for.

Yes it does. except the dealer is not the one I purchased the battery from it was auto=zone. I took it to the dealer after the computer failer. I am thinking that what ever was done to clean, charge or tighten the cables caused the problem it that possible?

I understand what you are saying about the voltage and crossing up the cables. They did not remove the battery to my knowledge.

I do not feel that cleaning the terminals would have caused for this. Normally you just simply use a wire brush and battery terminal cleaner to clean these up. I honestly do not see this causing the problems you are having.

I will tell you that...the things you have to go through to be an Expert are quite rigorous.

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